Top 10 Web Companies to Work For
January 1, 2005 at 12:20 PM
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Recently I gathered feedback from several experts within the web industry and asked them to give me their top 10 favorite web companies to work for. There is no criteria here as to who does and who does not qualify. They can be sole proprietorships or large multi-national corporations. They can be an army of freelancers working remotely from their homes or bona fide employees under the same roof with benefits and perhaps stock options. With that said, here are the results:
- 37signals
- Adaptive Path
- Ludicorp
- Amazon.com
- Second Story
- Yahoo!
- Happy Cog Studios
- frog design & Six Apart (a tie)
- Cuban Council
Also please note that I myself had no vote in this matter, I simply tallied the results. There were several great companies that came close but didn't make it into the top ten list. There were also several companies that have very low total revenue but were ranked much higher than companies with significantly larger annual revenue. That said the playing field here was very broad and not specifically level. Does popularity trump profit? Do smaller groups of freelancers offer more perceived value than established companies with a solid core group of employees? What are the metrics for success in a web company? Some food for thought there. As always, I'd love to hear the names of companies you think are great web companies to work for. Feel free to share your ideas in the comments section for this post.
Comments
Nice list. How many people did you ask, and how many total responses did you get back? I'd be interested in seeing the entire set of top ten lists, assuming each individual was willing to have their list published. Thanks for compiling all this. What are your personal top ten?
Well, there were more than 400 people asked to participate, and about 60 responces (I wouldn't have expected more being that the request was sent 12 hours from new years). I can't publish the individual lists because a lot of people asked me not to and since I didn't state I would publish them I have decided to simply retain the participants right to not publish that information. I can assure you, though, that if you can think of a web company at least one person who participated mentioned it. You know, the Methods, Apples, and RGAs, etc. As for my personal top 10. Well, I would say what you see here is pretty close to what I would have come up with. The only exception being a few companies I have worked with fitting into the list somehow. Namely ZAAZ (my current employeer), gotomedia, Hillman Curtis, and Bradbury Software (even tho Nick Bradbury won't be hiring in the unforseeable future).
Mine was one of the 60 that (hopefully) got in before the deadline. Here's what I submitted, which due to the timeframe was a bit rushed :-) "I think I can point to my post the other day - Best Web 2.0 companies of 2004: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/002609.php I'd love to work for all of those companies. My 10 then: Google Amazon Ludicorp (Flickr) Feedburner Bloglines PubSub Six Apart Feedster Robot Co-op Sun"
I'd say that skinnyCorp should be on the list. They made threadless, naked and angry, yayhooray!, and 15 megs of fame, as well as some nice pure client stuff. I'd love to work there.
i'd definitely agree with the props for skinnycorp. so many cool projects.
With all due respect, Nick, I fail to see how this list is and can be anything but a popularity contest. The only people qualified to rate a given company on its quality of working life are those who have worked there. To suggest otherwise is to reward perception over lived reality. I appreciate you having solicited my input, but humbly submit that in the absence of a rigorous and detailed audit of the firms in question on meaningful criteria for "quality," any such ranking is close to content-free.
Isn't this really a list of "places that do good work" rather than "good places to work for?" There are what, four people at 37S? And maybe 8 at Ludicorp? Happy Cog is three. Obviously none of us here knows what its actually like to work at those companies. And bloody Frog? I've had many many friends at frog and the place is a terrible employer and a genuinely unpleasant place to be a designer.
what about top 10 web comps NOT to work for?
I think I need to restate the point of this survey: I asked industry experts who THEY would like to work for... knowing what they know today, and not specifically having worked for said companies. Nothing more. This is not a study of the best companies to work for for anyone. This is a non-scientific survey of industry expert's favorite picks. Looking any deeper than that is simply not practical.
This list would be much different if you were a client; flip your perspective and actually try to work with the designers on this list and see if they still maintain their status. Having worked with a few of the design companies on the list you'd be shocked at how bad their product or customer service was. Industry experts ought to fill out an RFP with a real project and give a few of these firms a run thru the process; see if the list holds up then. We used to really look up to two of these companies until they absolutely failed to live up to their touted mantra. Sometimes people don't live up to their well-crafted web site (or book) copy.
A great post for to see what to shoot for in the Web industry. Site's like Cuban council inspire (I had no idea they created k10k). I'll admit I haven't heard of Adaptive Path, Second Story, or Frog Design. Love it when I see quality companies in action.
I find it interesting that those who posted negative comments don't have the decency to use their name, web address, or email address to show they can back their statements with an identity at the very least. Perhaps just bitter ex-employees? Or better yet, their competition? Most of all, I think they are just jealous they didn
It's really an impressive roster. Kinda shows who has web "street cred" :)
Nick, it's not about decency
Bravo, ill - very well said. (For the record, I certainly hope ours was not one of the two that disappointed you so. If we were, please do mail me and let's talk about how and why you felt underserved.) Nick, ill's point is well-taken. It's a small- and interdependent-enough community that there are legitimate reasons for someone uttering potentially unpleasant truths to desire anonymity. Service to the extended Web-design community would reside in airing and discussing these truths with an eye toward their resolution, rather than slapping each other on the back and telling each other how good we are. As far as I am concerned, no shop in the world *consistently* turns out work that is up to my personal standards, including my own, but of course this has little to do with inherent talent or dedication, and far more to do with the nature of any client service industry. If we were genuinely interested in improving the quality of work we ship, we would do well to explore the characteristic ruptures in communication between ourselves and our clients to learn how we might do better next time. (That, incidentally, is all I ask of myself or anyone I work with: do the best you're capable of now, and resolve to do better in the future.) worker drone - speak for yourself. ; . )
ill: point taken, yet at the same time this wasn't about what the clients think is a good agency or company.. this isn't even about the work that that company or agency produces. This isn't about the known quality of work, known benefits, or even known ideal environment to work in. This is about how people who are experts in the industry precieve various companys (and in a few cases on this list, groups of people, not companies) out there. That's all. If you'd like to put the time and energy in to tracking down the top web companies out there based on client experiences, I would be happy to publish it right here on Digital Web Magazine.
Adam: Yes, I agree with your points here. But I do think some of these companies do deserve far more credit in the industry than they are currently getting... but it wasn't my list or my choice as to who got on that list.... it was the industry experts out there and their choices. On the note of doing the best you can now. I agree that no one always puts out great work, and this has a lot to do with the customer service type of industry we are in, however I am personally tired of seeing half assed work. Seriously. I want to see something that really makes a mark and pushes the boundaries of what is possible. Something beyond the kind of work most companies produce day after day. Something more than just another web site. I do think this is possible given enough skill and raw talent coupled with a good paired client and business... and of course patience and clean methodologies that are actually implemented properly.
Then you're in the wrong business, Nick: "We shape our tools, and thereafter they shape us." The entire Web development industry - for many reasons, some valid or at least understandable - has calcified around one particular way of doing things, one architecture. Now that it's been normalized and assimilated, I'd almost say the Web per se is structurally incapable of offering up surprise any more. If you're looking to be knocked out, you'll have to move toward the margins.
Adam: I guess we have to agree to disagree here. I feel there is space to innovate... I am not limiting this to web sites on computer screens.
Some companies I've never even heard of. Could it be spam? ;)
AG: I totally agree. Good comment. The "Web industry" (if there is such a thing...ok, Web professionals) need to look at and start incorporating other disciplines if they want to remain relevant and leaders. Why? Context of course. Formal aspects, just like in painting and art, are the only things I hear discussed, debated, etc. The Web is not just medium, it is a social tool (was meant to be and it seems to becoming true), so while the technical and formal (style, look and feel, etc...)aspects are important, they don't address the role or potential role this new medium will have on social, political, cultural systems. So, to close, we need to dip our fingers into other disciplines, not become experts. We need to "Web Social Scientists" if you ask me (and Nick did!) Thanks all for the great posts.
Michael: I agree with your points here, and this is exactly one area where I see we can still innovate on the web. I am lucky to work with a company that does incorporate other disciplines and does look at the social, political, and cultural aspects of everything we build. That said, I do think there is a future for us, we just need to adapt.
Great point Mike; life isn't happening on the web! Going outside, being with people, holding things in your hands
It's 2,005 and every company has a website and is in the business of e-tailing to some extent! That being said only a "digital web magazine" would bother with this survey and then report back with such a limited group of companies -- wakeup it's not the mid/late 1990's. The reality is that what was once a career requiring sophisticated skills and unique customization has become replaced by either (1) an enterprising high school student who is sick of wasting his free time playing videogames and IM'ing his friends and wants to make some money so he can buy a car or (2) an off the shelf software product that Joe Schmo Office Werker can operate. Don't kid yourself, advanced scripting and design work isn't going to lead to jack at any of these companies except, potentially for the time being, Google. For something real to take place a group of "web industry" folks need to focus on developing original ideas instead of biting someone elses flash animations, javascript features, and trendy design elements. No more crappy re-implementations of things that were just fine before or shitty knock offs (now with more ___.) Ultimately, it's about the idea not proving that you can do what someone else has done. Good luck.
Great idea. Nice list too. I would think of companies like WebLinc, Hello design, and kurt noble.
I agree that this is a bit of a popularity contest. It always is in this industry. I went to the Clio awards in Miami last year and spent a lot of time wandering around thinking how this was all insider back-slapping. Somewhere on the Corbis site is a picture of me asleep at a party. What I'm interested in is - out of these companies, which of them can point to a positive change in their client's business after the project was complete (either in the bottom line or in daily ergonomics). At my little company, that's how we measure success. Not that we can always demonstrate a positive change... but the client's business is the true measure of one's success. Now, having said that, I would love to be the kind of company that has a portfolio that makes other companies in my industry envious. That's human nature, and I think that a popularity contest is just fine every now and again. It shows who's getting the good clients and who's pulling off good work for them. And not all of us can do that. Stay hungry.
"best" is so general... I tried to list only companies where I knew the employees to be happy-- but that even is hard to define. How do you comapre a tiny start up where you have ownership but hardly any medical benefits or vacation to a 8000 person company? How can you rate ebay where the employees are engaged, excited and (rumored to be) overworked, or yahoo where every single property is a different independant group, so it can be a great place to work or a tough row to hoe, depending on what corner you are in? How do you rate a comapny which is a dream for engineers and hell for designers? What about a company like frog, which has been recently aquired, and no longer exists in its old form, where droves of old employees are leaving but the new folks might be happy in a new way? I would suggest Nick consider creating a survey with these (and other) dimenstions, and have people rate it-- including the questions "do you work for them" "were you an employee, contractor, or owner" and questions on benefits, vacation, hours worked weekly (which is tricky to measure satisfaction on-- when you are in the valley hours can represent joy or pain). And seperate by discipline. I think such a list would be a valuable contribution to the community.
If I only had that kind of free time :)
This was my response to Nick's request. I think it's a difficult exercize which will make no one happy: I'm always hesitant with things like this, as it's a question of what are you rating them on... I mean, I worked at Razorfish and my experience was that they did crap work... but that was the project I was on, in the office I was on at the time I was there... so hard to judge it on that. Certainly your list is "well known" or "industry recognized" or something... just like a list of "best web people" would include the likes of Jeffrey Zeldman regardless of what work he has or hasn't done lately... because he is more known than others... In terms of those which have affected my life & career this year... Google, 37Signals, Yahoo!, http://www.skinnycorp.com/ umm... that's about it off the top of my head.
